I see no responses from you to any of the people who have thus far ventured to offer their help. That is a curious way to go about learning about a camera that you my purchase and have come here to ask for ideas.

Just how do you plan on using your Leica camera? You never mentioned that one very important piece of information, so how can anyone advise you regarding the proposed choices?

I would gues as an indoor portrait camera judging on the 75mm f/2.5 FL you mentioned. Or was that the only new lens available to you? In that case my portrait guess is unfounded. Do you see the pedicament you have placed us in.

But then you mention that you may get by with zone focusing and that would never do for indoor portraiture, it's more of an outdoor street shooting method used when there is no time for perfect manual focusing. Is this your intened use? A 75mm f/2.5 could work in the street. But I would guess a wider FL would serve you better. Unless you wish to capture people from a distance and that changes things from street shooting into the stealth mode style. Is that how you intend on using your Leica?

As mentioned by others, what's wrong with second hand lenses? You never gave a reason why you only wish to purchase only "new".

For such an experienced cameraman as yourself, and I have nor reason to doubt your experiences, I am left wondering about much of your post. So much information was lacking it's not possible to offer revalent help. I'd like to ask you, would you in fact be better served with the AF FujiFilm X-Pro 1? If not, then why not?
-Peter

ski542002
wrote:

Where I'm coming from and my mindset going into some quick decisions I need to make...

-Never owned any Leica-M, but did extensively use 2, Mamiya-6 systems (and briefly the Mamiya-7).

-I'm WELL aware of the limitations, and benefits of any rangefinder (or non-slr) system.

-ANY equipment I purchase, I do so to make money. Like a mechanic, I use my gear as tools and little else.

-Unexpected limitations of any piece of equipment that would cause me to be less than professional at what I do, would mean I don't buy the equipment.

-I have specific needs for getting back into an M-9 type system. Smaller, a bit stealthy, great image quality, accurate focusing. Sometimes not fast, but at least with the M-lenses, that's when zone focusing is useful.

So having said all of that, I'm real close to getting into the M9 with for now, the Summarit-M 75mm f2.5. I know it's not terribly fast, but fast enough for me and my local dealer is holding one for me. I'm frustrated that I'll have to wait 6-9 months for the Summicron-M 35, my next lens. I wont' buy preowned.

I'm also not interested for now, in the rumored M10. If announced in May, I'm guessing it'd be Christmas of 2013 before I'd ever take delivery, and the lens backorder situation would only get worse. I'm also hoping that given Leica's desire to mitegate obsolescence, any improved M10 chip could retrofit back into the M9 down the road?

Enter the XPro-1. Other than it's great image quality, I've heard most of the negatives on the focus. Unfortunate the lenses don't have etched distance scales for zone focusing. I owned an LC-1 and am aware of the pitfalls of focus-by-wire and the EVF. Not sure how much better the Xpro1 is than the LC-1 in that regard.
The ONLY temptations I am feeling are,

-Xpro1, full 3-lens system is more available and at about $3,600, it's about $10,000 less than a comparable M system (1 body, 3 similar focal length equivalent lenses).

Can(??) the Xpro1 focusing deficiencies be $10,000 worse than a rangefinder? But then I get back to my original point above, about the "tools not getting in the way of results expected of a professional". In the long run, that's worth paying an additional $10,000 if my reputation is at stake.

Something else to consider. In 4 years I feel confident the M will retain it's value; the Xpro1 not so much.

Any positive/negative discussion to help me make a quick decision would be much appreciated!